Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 74:13
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou didst break the heads of the dragons in the waters.
13. Thou ] Psa 74:13-15 ; Psa 74:17 all begin with an emphatic Thou; Psa 74:16 with Thine. It is Thou and none other, Who didst and doest all these things. The Asaphite Psalms are full of references to the Exodus.
by thy strength ] Cp. Psa 77:14; Exo 15:13. The dragons or sea monsters, and leviathan, either the crocodile or some vague mythological monster, are symbolical of Egypt. Cp. Isa 27:1; Isa 51:9; Eze 29:3.
in the waters ] Lit. upon the waters, the symbolical monsters being imagined as floating upon the surface of the water. The reference of course is to the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength – Margin, as in Hebrew, break. That is, he had by his power broken up the strength of the sea so that it offered no resistance to their passing through it. The allusion is evidently to the passage through the Red Sea, Exo 14:21.
Thou brakest the heads of the dragons – Margin, whales. On the meaning of the word used here – tannyn – see the notes at Isa 13:22; notes at Job 30:29. It refers here, undoubtedly, to crocodiles or sea monsters. The language here is used to denote the absolute power of God as manifested over the sea when the people of Israel passed through it. It was as if by slaying all the mighty monsters of the deep that would have resisted their passage, he had made their transit entirely safe.
In the waters – That reside in the waters of the sea.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. Thou didst divide the sea] When our fathers came from Egypt.
Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.] Pharaoh, his captains, and all his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, when attempting to pursue them.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The dragons; or, the crocodiles. He means Pharaoh and all his mighty men, who were like these beasts in strength and cruelty.
The waters, to wit, of the sea, where they were drowned.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13-15. Examples of the”salvation wrought” are cited.
divide the seathat is,Red Sea.
brakest . . . watersPharaohand his host (compare Isa 51:9;Isa 51:10; Eze 29:3;Eze 29:4).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength,…. This and the following instances from hence to Ps 74:18 are proofs of God’s working salvation in the midst of the earth; some of them seem peculiar to the people of Israel, and others are benefits common to mankind in general; which the church makes use of to encourage her faith and hope, in expectation of salvation, and deliverance out of her present distressed and melancholy circumstances. This seems to refer to the Lord’s dividing of the Red sea into parts by a strong east wind, while Moses lifted up his rod and stretched out his hand as he was ordered, as a token of the divine power, and so the children of Israel passed through it as on dry land, Ex 14:21, and he that did this can make way for his redeemed ones to return to Zion with everlasting joy, Isa 51:10. Some render the words, “thou hast broken the sea by thy strength” g; subdued and conquered it, and so hast the dominion over it, rulest the raging of it, settest bounds to it, and hast ordered its proud waves to go so far and no farther; and thus the Arabic version, “thou hast made it to stand”; and the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, “thou hast confirmed it”: but our version is best, which refers it to the work of God at the Red sea, and with which the Targum agrees; and Aben Ezra observes, that some refer it to the dividing of the Red sea:
thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters: or great whales, as the word is rendered in Ge 1:21, by which are meant Pharaoh and his generals, his captains and chief men, who were destroyed in the waters of the Red sea; comparable to dragons for their strength, for their cruelty to the children of Israel, and for their wrath and malice against them; and so, for the same reason, another Pharaoh, king of Egypt, in later times, is called the great dragon, that lies in the midst of his rivers, Eze 29:3 and the king of Babylon or of Egypt, Isa 27:1. So the Targum paraphrases it:
“thou hast broken the heads of dragons, and hast suffocated the Egyptians in the sea.”
Rome Pagan is compared to a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, which have been broken and destroyed, Re 12:3, and Rome Papal has the power, seat, and great authority of the dragon; and though the Romish antichrist has two horns like a lamb, he speaks as a dragon, who also has seven heads and ten horns, and which ere long will be broke in pieces, see Re 13:1, in the faith of which the church might be strengthened, by considering what God had done to the heads of the dragon in the Red sea; to which may be added that Satan is called a dragon, Ps 91:13, whose head was bruised, and his principalities and powers spoiled, by Christ at his death, and will be utterly destroyed at his second coming.
g “contrivisti”, Pagninus, Montanus; “disrupisti”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis “rupisti”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13. Thou hast divided the sea by thy power. The prophet now collects together certain kinds of deliverances highly worthy of remembrance; all of them, however, belonging to the first deliverance by which God emancipated his people from the tyranny of Egypt. We will find him afterwards descending to the general commendation of the goodness of God which is diffused through the whole world. Thus from the special grace which God vouchsafes to his Church, he passes on to speak of the good-will which he displays towards all mankind. In the first place, he says, Thou hast divided, or cleaved, the sea. Some think that the following clause is subjoined as an effect of what is stated in the first clause, — God, by drying up the sea, having caused the whales and other great fishes to die. I am, however, of opinion, that it is to be taken metaphorically for Pharaoh and his army; this mode of expression being very common among the prophets, especially when they speak of the Egyptians, whose country was washed by a sea abounding with fish, and divided by the Nile. Pharaoh is, therefore, not improperly termed Leviathan, (235) on account of the advantages of the sea possessed by his country, and because, in reigning over that land with great splendor, he might be compared to a whale moving up and down at its ease in the midst of the waters of the mighty ocean. (236) As God put forth his power at that time for the deliverance of the people, to assure the Church that he would always be her protector and the guardian of her welfare, the encouragement afforded by this example ought not to be limited exclusively to one age. It is, therefore, with good reason applied to the descendants of that ancient race, that they might improve it as a means of confirming and establishing their faith. The prophet does not here recount all the miracles which God had wrought at the departure of the people from the land of Egypt; but in adverting to some of them, he comprehends by the figure synecdoche, all that Moses has narrated concerning them at greater length. When he says that leviathan was given for food to the Israelites, and that even in the wilderness, (237) there is a beautiful allusion to the destruction of Pharaoh and his host. It is as if he had said, that then a bountiful provision of victuals was laid up for the nourishment of the people; for when their enemies were destroyed, the quiet and security which the people in consequence enjoyed served, so to speak, as food to prolong their life. By the wilderness, is not meant the countries lying on the sea coast, though they are dry and barren, but the deserts at a great distance from the sea. The same subject is prosecuted in the following verse, where it is declared, that the fountain was cleaved or divided, that is, it was so when God caused a stream of water to gush from the rock to supply the wants of the people. (238) Finally, it is added, that mighty rivers (239) were dried up, an event which happened when God caused the waters of the Jordan to turn back to make a way for his people to pass over. Some would have the Hebrew word איתן, ethan, which signifies mighty, to be a proper name, as if the correct translation were rivers of Ethan; but this interpretation is altogether without foundation.
(235) Calvin supposes that the whale is the animal here referred to, and this was the opinion for a long time universally held. But from a comparison of the description given by Job of the Leviathan (Job 41:0) with what is known of the natural history of the crocodile, there can be little doubt that the crocodile is the Leviathan of Scripture. This is now very generally agreed upon. “Almost all the oldest commentators,” says Dr Good, “I may say unconditionally all of them concurred in regarding the whale as the animal” intended by the Leviathan. “Beza and Diodati were among the first to interpret it ‘the crocodile.’ And Bochart has since supported this last rendering with a train of argument, which has nearly overwhelmed all opposition, and has brought almost every commentator over to his opinion.” — Dr Good ’ s New Translation of Job “With respect to the Leviathan,” says Fry, “all are now pretty well agreed that it can apply only to the crocodile, and probably it was nothing but a defective knowledge of the language of the book of Job, or of the natural history of this stupendous animal, which led former commentators to imagine the description applicable to any other.” — Fry ’ s New Translation and Exposition of the Book of Job This Egyptian animal, the crocodile of the Nile, as we have formerly observed, (p. 38, note,) was anciently employed as a symbol of the Egyptian power, or of their king. Parkhurst remarks that in Scheuchzer’s Physica Sacra may be seen a medal with Julius Caesar’s head on one side, and on the reverse a crocodile with this inscription, — Ægypte Capta, Egypt Taken. This strengthens the conclusion that the crocodile is the animal intended by the name Leviathan. Both the etymology of the name Leviathan, and to what language it belongs, according to Simonis, are unknown. But according to Gesenius it signifies “properly the twisted animal.” It is affirmed by the Arabic lexicographers quoted by Bochart, ( Phaleg Lib. 1, cap. 15,) that Pharaoh in the Egyptian language signified a crocodile; and if so, there may be some such allusion to his name in this passage, and in Eze 29:3, and Eze 32:2, where the king of Egypt is represented by the same animal, as was made to the name of Draco, when Herodicus (in a sarcasm recorded by Aristotle, Rhet Lib. 2, cap. 23) said that his laws, — which were very severe, — were the laws οὐκ ἀνθρώπου ἀλλὰ δράκοντος, non hominis sed draconis. — Merrick ’ s Annotations “ The heads of Leviathan” may denote the princes of Egypt, or the leaders of the Egyptian armies.
(236) “ Regnoit en grand triomphe, comme la balene se pourmene a sou aise au milieu de ce grande amas d’eaux.” — Fr.
(237) Calvin reads, “thy people in the wilderness.” But thy has nothing to represent it in the original, which literally is, “to a people, to those of the wilderness.” Those who adopt this rendering are not agreed as to what is to be understood by the expression. Some think it means the birds and beasts of prey, who devoured the dead bodies of Pharaoh and the Egyptian army, when cast upon the coast of the Red Sea by the tides. See Exo 14:30. If such is the meaning, these birds and beasts of prey are called “the people of wilderness,” as being its principal inhabitants. That עם, am, people, is sometimes to be thus interpreted in Scripture is evident from Pro 30:25, where both the ants and the conies are styled a people But as the desert on the coast of which the Egyptians were thrown up was inhabited by tribes of people who lived on fishes — even on those of the largest kind, which they found cast upon the shore by the tides — and were from thence called Ιχθυοφάγοι, or fish-eaters; some interpreters suppose that these are “the people of the wilderness” here mentioned; and that as Pharaoh and his host are represented under the figure of the Leviathan and other monsters of the deep, so these people, in allusion to their common way of living, are figuratively said to have preyed on their dead bodies, by which is understood their enriching themselves with their spoils.
(238) “ Quand Dieu feit que de la roche saillit un cours d’eau pour la necessite du peuple.” — Fr.
(239) It is rivers in the plural, from which it would appear that the Jordan was not the only river which was dried up, to give an easy passage to the Israelites. The Chaldee specifies the Arnon, the Jabbok, and the Jordan, as the rivers here referred to. With respect to the Jordan, see Jos 3:16. As to the miraculous drying up either of the Arnon or the Jabbok, we have no distinct account in Scripture. But in Num 21:0, after it is mentioned, Num 21:13, that the Israelites “pitched on the other side of Arnon,” it follows, Num 21:14, “Wherefore, it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, and at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.” From this it would appear that God wrought at “the brooks of Arnon, and at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar,” miracles similar to that which was wrought at the Red Sea, when it was divided to open up a passage for the chosen tribes.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) Thou.Verse after verse this emphatic pronoun recurs, as if challenging the Divine Being to contradict.
Divide.Literally, break up.
Dragons.Hebrew, tannnm, not to be confounded with tannm (Psa. 44:19, where see Note). It is the plural of tannn, which always indicates some aquatic monster. In Gen. 1:21 it is translated whale, so here by Symmachus. The LXX. (comp. Vulgate) have rendered this word and leviathan (in the next verse) by , and, indeed, the parallelism indicates monsters of a similar, if not the same, kind. About leviathan the minute and faithful description of the crocodile in Job 41 does not leave a doubt, and therefore we conclude that the tannin, here as in Eze. 29:3; Eze. 32:2 (margin), Isa. 27:1; Isa. 51:9 (where it is also, as here, joined with leviathan), an emblem of Egypt, was some great saurian, perhaps the alligator. The derivation from a root implying extend, favours this explanation. (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, pp. 260, 261.) Besides its abundance, another fact leading to the crocodile becoming an emblem of Egypt, was the adoration paid to it. (See Herod., ii. 69.)
In the waters.Literally, on the waters.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Thou didst divide the sea He begins with the deliverance from Egypt. Could their deliverance now from Babylon be greater? Could not the same God even now restore them? Psa 74:13-15 are a historical review of God’s providence; Psa 74:16-17, of his providence and power in nature.
Thou brakest the heads of the dragons Or, crocodiles, the symbol of Egypt. Isa 51:9; Eze 29:3.
In the waters Hebrew, upon the waters; in allusion to those river and sea monsters who lie with their heads exposed above water. See Psa 74:14
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 74:13-14. Dragonsleviathan The Hebrew words may mean much the same; only the latter seems to express a more distinguished kind of crocodile. It is under this character that the Egyptians and their king are designed, who were destroyed in the Red Sea, and their bodies thrown out for a prey to the desart nations, who lived on fish, and what the sea yielded. See Mudge and Eze 1:4. The Targum has it; Thou crushedst the heads of the dragons, and drownedst the Egyptians in the sea; thou brakest the heads of the strong ones of Pharaoh. Some commentators suppose, that the people inhabiting the wilderness must mean figuratively the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the land; so that the meaning of this is just as if it had been said that Goliath’s curse had been fulfilled upon them; I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. 1Sa 17:44. And it appears from Homer’s and other poets’ use of the phrase, that it was proverbial.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The Holy Ghost evidently intended by these sweet and precious verses, to teach the church, in all ages, how to adopt such arguments, in all our dealings with God, when under trial. The best thing I can say to my God in Christ, is, what my God hath first said to me. In past experience, the truest and best confidence is found for future exercises. Hence the church reminds God what great things had been done by him in times past for his people: he alludes to the triumph of Israel over Pharaoh at the Red Sea; and how, in a time of drought in the wilderness, afterward, the Lord caused the rock to give out water to refresh the thirst of the people. Now, saith the prophet, shall not God give the like deliverance to his people at all times, and upon all occasions? Are not all past deliverances so many tokens and pledges of future ones, when needed? But what is meant by the Lord’s breaking this leviathan, this monster, Pharaoh’s head, and giving him for meat to the people in the wilderness? No doubt, the sense is, that the glorious interposition of the Lord, in a moment of such danger, became as food to the faith of the people upon all after-trials. Whenever the church was brought low, they were to recollect the events of the Red Sea, and feed by faith upon God, and his assured promises in Christ. Reader, do not overlook your personal concern in those sweet scriptures. Did God break the monster’s head then, and will he not bruise Satan under your feet shortly now? Did the rock follow Israel, and was that rock Christ? And will not Jesus follow thee, go before thee, and bring thee through every difficulty? Oh! how blessed is it to read the Old Testament saints experiences in a gospel dress, and see our own interest in the whole of them.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 74:13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Ver. 13. Thou didst divide the sea, &c. ] “Thou” in this and the following verses is emphatic and exclusive, q.d. thou, and none but thou.
Thou brakest the heads of the dragons
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
divide = cleave. Compare Exo 14:21, describing a sudden vehement act. Hebrew. parar.
dragons = crocodiles. (No Art.) Symbolical of Egypt.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
divide: Heb. break, Psa 66:6, Psa 78:13, Psa 106:8, Psa 106:9, Psa 136:13-18, Exo 14:21, Neh 9:11, Isa 11:15, Isa 11:16
brakest: Exo 14:28, Isa 51:9, Isa 51:10, Eze 29:3
dragons: or, whales, Eze 32:2
Reciprocal: Exo 7:9 – a serpent Exo 15:10 – blow Job 26:12 – divideth Job 26:13 – the crooked serpent Psa 44:19 – in the Psa 106:21 – which Psa 148:7 – ye dragons Isa 27:1 – the dragon Isa 43:16 – maketh Isa 51:15 – that divided Jer 31:35 – which divideth Hab 3:10 – the overflowing Hab 3:13 – thou woundedst
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 74:13-14. Thou didst divide the sea, &c. The first part of this verse alludes to that marvellous act of omnipotence which divided the Red sea for Israel to pass over; the second part to the return of its waves upon the heads of the Egyptians, who, like so many sea-monsters, opening their mouths to devour the people of God, were overwhelmed, and perished in the mighty waters. Horne. Thou brakest the heads of the dragons The crocodiles, meaning Pharaohs mighty men, who were like these beasts in strength and cruelty. Thou brakest the heads That is, the head of Pharaoh himself. He says heads, because of the several princes who were and acted under his influence. Dr. Waterland renders the first word, which we translate dragons, crocodiles, and the latter, the crocodile, meaning Pharaoh. And gavest him, &c., to the people inhabiting the wilderness Hebrew, , legnam letziim, populo desertorum, locorum, (Buxtorf,) to the people of desert places. The Seventy render it,
, to the Ethiopian people. Poole, Horne, and some other commentators, suppose that ravenous birds and beasts of the desert, and not men, are here intended; and that the sense of the clause is, that the bodies of Pharaoh and his captains were thrown on shore by the sea, and so became food for the wild beasts of the neighbouring deserts. We find the same word , used for wild beasts haunting the deserts, Isa 13:21; Isa 34:14.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
74:13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the {i} dragons in the waters.
(i) That is, Pharaoh’s army.